Old Things Are Passed Away

Once I decided to turn my life over to God through Jesus, things started changing for me very quickly. As long as I lived my life in darkness, it was easy to believe that my life and the things in it were completely acceptable. But once God's light shone upon my actions, activities, and possessions, it became immediately clear that things had to change. This was not a slow call from God to look through every item, evaluate the level of damage it was doing in my life, and then get rid of it if I felt I should or could; this was a shout in my ears to get it out, right then and there. I had collected a lot of books, movies, and stuff in general that was going to have to go. A LOT. 

The night of August 4th, and the morning of the 5th, I did some serious purging. It was hard, painful, and wonderful all at the same time. A few things that I had to get rid of technically had nothing wrong with them, but movies are an addiction for me, and anything that came between me and God had to go. These things I sold back, but many other things I owned were anti-Christian at the very least, some worshipped other gods, others were boldly demonic. I could not sell these things back, and put them back into the world, where someone might buy them. How would I answer for that later, if I did that and it kept someone else from finding God? My only regret is that some people were hurt by these actions. They couldn't understand how I could throw away things they had given me for my birthday, or Christmas...did I value their friendship that lightly? Not at all, but God's commands come first. He didn't say to take my time in deciding the best way to get these things out, He said to get them out immediately, and I did what I felt Him leading me to do. 

I thought that I had done wonderfully, and had gotten out everything that had come between me and God. God disagreed...the night of the 5th He once again told me to get rid of the things that were hurting me. Once again, the trashcan came out, and many things were thrown away. Rinse and repeat, over and over and over. I wish I could tell you that I was done, but I am still finding things in my house that are not good for me and my walk with God. A couple days ago I threw out more movies and some pictures that depicted drinking on them. 

Again, let me stress that these things aren't necessarily bad for everyone; I am not judging or pretending to be better than anyone else because I got rid of these things. I had to get rid of things that most Christians can have in their home, not because I am better, but because I am much worse off. I can not allow anything in my life that might influence me back to my old way of living. The person I was is dead, and a new person has been born; the woman I am now has little interest in the life and things of the woman I was. It all had to go: movies I watched for hours on end, the alcohol and anything that represented it, the smoking, all my vampire stuff, my horror movies, my romance novels that idealized sex outside of marriage, anything that had to do with India because a lot of that involved worship of other gods. It goes on and on. I filled my trashcan up over and over and over. I didn't know how much there was until I had to have it hauled away. These pictures are my bookshelf and DVD shelves after the purge. These were so full when I started that I had no more room for any more movies or books, so you can see how many I had to get rid of. My walls are also half empty after taking down all the wall art that had to go. 

I lost clothes, movies, books, tons of music, craft projects with non-Christian themes, wall art, even the crafts business I had started...it goes on and on. But to be clear, what I really lost was a life full of sin, sadness, loneliness, bitterness, and despair. These things never made me happy, even if it felt like they did; they actually did the opposite and caused untold damage. They never helped the problem, they only masked the symptoms of my unhappiness. But now, everything has changed; even on my hardest day since God saved me I am happier than I was on my best day as an unrepentant sinner. There is no comparison, and no way for you to understand unless you have experienced this for yourself. If you haven't, I urge you to talk to a Christian you know, or to the pastor of a local church; if you have no one in your life to tell you about Jesus, I would love to share the gospel with you! Feel free to email me at purplesapphire81@yahoo.com. 



There were many other changes in my life since my salvation, but this is the one that seems to have made the biggest impact on my life. I appreciate your taking the time to let me share what God has done for me. Talk to you tomorrow!